“Now, it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes: it is not simply due to the bad influence of this or that individual writer.” — George Orwell George Orwell had a sixth […]
Literature has always been important, is still important and will continue to be important for as long as human beings have a speech centre in their brain. And were an errant blood vessel to flood this important area of […]
Often inflated and possibly misleading, the titles I chose for my college Lit essays were always picked last and were usually the invention of unpardonable puns and last-minute panic. In my first and second year, those amateurish instincts did […]
The novel encourages – a form of storytelling that promotes our sense of being individual, but never forgetting the bond of our “common humanity” and of the “universal experiences” that we believe the best novels elucidate and comment on. – […]
Quebec’s Robert Lepage and his company, Ex Machina, collaborated with Theatre Sans Frontieres to bring Lipsynch, to The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 2009 Next Wave Festival (Oct 3-11). It would be an understatement to state that this production transported […]
Samira sat on the floor of her adobe hut studying her hands as carefully as if she were plucking a daisy or reading the constellations on a bright night or counting the drops of water that dripped […]
In October 1975 Roy Lowther was charged with the murder of his wife, Pat, a gifted and renowned Canadian poet, when her two young daughters, Chris and Beth, were seven and nine. In this film, the two women […]
WOMAN WILLING TO DEFEND HER HOTEL – MEXICO CITY [ZOCALO] HOTEL ISABEL 2003 I was invited to Mexico City in the fall of 2003 on a research and production grant from the Conseil des Arts et des […]
In the tradition of Sadat Hasan Manto: A man by the name of X hopped from one shelter to another telling families that the enemy had crossed the line and to be prepared for the worst. When he […]
I met him in a dream. It was a bar, and I sat staring into the long mirror as he pushed his way in. He stood listening to the creaking back and forth of the swinging doors at his […]
Stealing Nasreen by Farzana Doctor, Inanna Publications and Education Inc., May 2009, 230 pgs. Every immigrant to the western world knows, or knows of, a cabdriver who was a brain surgeon or fiscal economist in his homeland. The narrative […]
Hope- For them hope is a rubber tyre around their necks Someone will douse kerosene and strike a match Dear Dr. Singh, how long does it take for rubber to burn fully? Does it burn […]
Le fils de madame Locarno a écrit un roman. Mon dieux dite-elle, à tous ceux qui l’interpellent Cette vie fructueuse à Sas Fé, là, où les montagnes Hérissent le dos un contre l’autre Une énorme famille qui somnole […]
The woodcutter’s daughter was not the one saved when he split open the wolf. Hero to someone else, heralded for his selfless deed, he wandered away, seeking greatness and fame. Crumbs eaten, stones grown moss […]
So poet, you think you’re a mystic? With oars of words and boats of paper you navigate the gentle waters churning them this way and that But deep waters run silent and I wonder if your oars […]
Given it starts me reading, Letters on a page open up with meaning, With someone else’s words who was hoping, To let others know what they were thinking. My friends usually will be thumbing, Might see how […]
Why do Jews have to be circumcised? Christ was a Jew before the Christians arrived, Yet Catholics tend to remain intact. You can pray all day, But you’ll never get your foreskin back. Yes, I know about hygienic concerns. […]
